As a season ticket holder living in London, it’s rare I return home for an overnight Norfolk visit, but with back-to-back home games against Stoke and Leicester – coupled with an old school friend about to embark on a year-long move to Australia – a five-day visit back to The Fine City beckoned.
And what a fun five days it was, with Saturday’s impressively resolute – albeit largely uninspiring – 1-0 win against the Potters and Wednesday night’s frustrating defeat against the promotion-chasing Foxes coming either side of a blast from the yellow and green past that reminded me just how lucky we are to support this most evocative, historic and community-centred of English football clubs.
As I tucked into an afternoon of Super Sunday action at my local Acle Social Club, I was introduced to a former, now-Blofield based, City midfielder by local sporting legend Colin ‘Boss’ Tovell.
The following day, a trip to The Forum’s local newspaper archives provided a thought-provoking deeper insight into the club’s rich history and, in particular, this paper’s brilliant coverage of some of the most memorable City moments.
And if that wasn’t enough, a trip to Yarmouth Races with ‘Boss’, son Martin and fellow Acle Rangers icon Julian Bussell on Tuesday injected an additional flavour of City-fuelled history into an increasingly eventful week back on home Norfolk soil.
Meeting Mick McGuire – who, having racked up almost 200 City appearances in the 1970s and 80s, I’m sure many older fans reading this column will remember – via ‘Boss’, who I know through my days playing for the village’s football and cricket teams and has functioned as a true Norfolk sporting trailblazer for half a century, was a great thrill, a former City star in the days of Ken Brown who once held a senior role at the PFA and now works as both an agent and refereeing assessor.
So after discussing all things from Peter Bankes’ performance at Tottenham the previous day – where McGuire was working – Paul Heckingbottom’s headline-making post-match comments and the current state of play at Norwich City, an era that the evergreen 71-year-old played in seemed a reasonable place to start when it came to Monday’s history-inspired trip to The Forum.
Plundering the library’s impressively comprehensive newspaper archives made for a genuinely magical afternoon, shining a light on everything from City’s storied cup run of 1959 to the days of Paul Lambert and, most notably, Wembley 1985, Munich 1993 and Nigel Worthington’s heroes of 2003/04, and so much more in between.
While many of these moments firmly predate my lifetime, it was a three-hour period that only served to further reinforce the club’s rich, often turbulent, history and just how fortunate we are support this most fascinating of local football teams.
That was probably a sufficient volume of nostalgia for one week, but on a trip to the east coast with ‘Boss’ and Co on Tuesday, there were more stories from Colin – the directors’ box-residing long-term chairman of City’s Ambassadors Club since the days of driving Sir Geoffrey Watling and Sir Arthur South to away matches, on close terms with several City legends and influential in securing the signing of Darren Huckerby back in 2004. This was followed by an introduction to former long-serving director and board member Michael Foulger over a post-racing beverage, which only further solidified my view that City must be one of the most distinctive clubs in the country that holds a genuinely unique status in the hearts of the local community.
This is something I’d like to think I never take for granted, but after a rare week-long escape from the chaotic daily grind of London life – which I love equally, but differently – it’s days like the above that make me feel genuinely privileged to call myself a lifelong City fan, amplified even further in an age of increasing big-team bias, glory-hunting supporters and unedifying Premier League greed.
Despite Wednesday’s disappointing defeat – we were well worth a point under the Carrow Road lights – City are continuing to impress on the pitch and so far this season, it’s been a joy to watch David Wagner’s re-energised squad embark on such an enterprising start to the campaign.
But more broadly, it’s important for us to never lose sight of the club’s wider values and just how lucky we are to support this most community-centred, inclusive and truly special local football team.
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